WAR PENSIONS

Evening Star, Issue 21582, 30 November 1933, Page 13

WAR PENSIONS

BILL NOT COMPETENT FULL INVESTIGATION PROMISED [l’na 11nitki) Pur.ss Association.] WELLINGTON, November 29. Reporting to the House of Representatives on Mr .1. A. Lee’s War Pensions Bill, tile Defence Committee recommended that as the Bill in its present form could not under the Standing Orders proceed, the subject matter, together with the evidence tajten on it, should be referred to the Government with a request for sympathetic investigation and action. The Bill sought to provide that physical, nervous, or mental incapacity which could have arisen from active service should be attributed to swell service, the onus being on the department to prove otherwise. Presenting the committee’s report, Mr H. G. Dickie (Patea) said that New Zealand was facing a problem which had to bo faced by every country which had participated In the war. “ I think all returned soldiers and the public generally in New Zealand are seized with the fact that we have a great number of men who are outside the scope of our present legislation, but who generally require assistance,” said slr Dickie. He went on to point out that the present economic trouble had had the effect of aggravating returned men’s worries, and as they felt the combined effects of those troubles and their war experiences there was an ever-increas-ing number of petitions coming before the House. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr M. J. Savage) said he thought the promoter of the Bill and the committee should be congratulated on the report. It was most difficult to prove attributability. He trusted the Minister of Pensions would take particular notice of the Bill and would leave no stone unturned to see that justice was done to all those who had sacrified everything they had, and who now found themselves in a difficult position. Mr SV. E. Barnard (Napier) said the committee, in coming to a decision, had been animated by a desire to do what the soldiers would call a “ fair thing.” Mr J. A. Lee (Grey Lynn) said if the Government took steps in the direction advocated by the committee, it would have the entire support of the House. It was felt that the time had arrived when a new attitude should be adopted towards returned men. Mr J. A. Hargest (Invercargill) said it was obvious members of the committee had been seized with the importance of the returned soldier question. There was another important aspect of the ease, and that related to a returned man who had waited a while after the war and then, believing that he had not suffered from the effects of his service, had married only to find his health breaking down later. The widows of such men had no redress whatever. He hoped the Government would waive the two years’ limitation clause. The Minister of Defence (Mr Cobbe) gave an assurance that the whole subject would bo very fully investigated. The committee’s report was adopted, and the Bill was removed from the Order Paper.